Error Analysis on Writing Application Letters Found in JPAC of Politeknik Negeri Bandung

Mieke Miryanti Jurusan Bahasa Inggris Politeknik Negeri Bandung Abstract: This study is intended to find out and analyze not only grammatical errors but also errors in arranging formats of business letters. This study is conducted by using descriptive qualitative approach and the data are from JPAC of Polban holding a Job Fair in 2012. The data of this study are the55 non-English Department students of Politeknik Negeri Bandung joining this Job Fair. The grammatical errors are classified based on the surface strategy taxonomy proposed by Dulay et al (1982), they are omission (71 errors), addition (35 errors), mis-formation (52 errors), and mis-ordering errors, while errors in formats of business letters are based on Taylor (2004), Geffner (1995), and Ashley (1984). The grammatical errors are first classified into five major categories and then they are divided by sub-categories. After observing, it is found that the largest number of errors is preposition. The following most problematic areas respectively are verb, after that article, followed by plural, and the least is tense. Inter-lingual and intra-lingual transfers are considered as the major cause of these errors. Furthermore, the errors in arranging layouts of business letters based on UK concept are classified into 6 categories, and the highest number of errors is found in sender address, followed by enclosure, after that complimentary close, then salutation, date, and the last is style. The cause of the errors is the students are probably lack of the knowledge of English business letter concept. Based on research findings, some suggestions are given to the teachers and the students. The teachers should pay more attention to writing to make the students succeed in providing Standard English sentences and they should give more practicing in writing letters. The students should use most of their spare time in reading English books or newspapers or magazines and they dont be lazy to practice more how to write well-organized letter. Keywords: grammatical error, application letter, inter and intra lingual I. INTRODUCTION

A letter plays a vital role in company business; it is a bridge that links to communicate the companys products. As the business letter acts as an ambassador for the company, it is vital that you should make the reader give a good impression to your letter. While Ashley (1984:12) says The layout and presentation of your letter are important as they give the reader the first impression of the firms efficiency. A good business letter should be well organized; you should say everything necessary to your message but not too much and knowing when this letter should be finished and using a courteous style. Furthermore, in composing good letter writing, you should notice some aspects and one of the important aspects that should be mastered in getting a wellstructured writing is the use of a high-standard English grammar. Poor grammar and spelling which are unprofessional can damage the reputation of both you as the writer and your company; by setting high standards in the important area of written communications you will be helping to create and enhance the corporate image your organization (Taylor, Ragam Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora Vol. 12 No. 3, Desember 2012

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2004). Principally, the business letter should look attractive, clear and neat as well as complete. Consequently, it should be written on good paper of the right size or presentable paper, neat and nicely designed. Finally, the most important element of writing a good English business letter is how your ability to identify and write to your audience. One such English business letter is job application letter. Generally, most people, however, find a job through advertisements in internet, newspapers or magazines through the situation vacant columns. Besides, you can know job vacancies from announcement boards available in your campus or the other campus. Whatever the way, generally, most companies will ask you to write job application letter accompanied by resume as a requirement for taking one of the positions offered. Your attractive application letter with its resume can do much to help you secure the job of your choice. Therefore, writing effectively is perhaps the most demanding work to do. In regard to the writing skill, it cannot be denied that writing in a foreign language (English) is not always as easy as writing in your own language since there are some different rules in the writing systems sometimes causing you to write many errors in sentences. Brown (1980: 165) says an error is noticeable grammar from the adult of native speaker, reflecting the inter language competence of the learner. Because English has its own grammatical or structural system in conveying an idea, therefore, the grammatical differences between Indonesian and English cause the learners to produce some grammatical errors in writing and it occurs in writing covering letters. The example of the grammatical error made by one of the students in writing covering letter can be seen as follows: I confident that I will be able to contribute * This sentence does not use Standard English sentence, because according to English grammar rule, a sentence could be accepted by correct English grammatical rule if the sentence whose subject is followed immediately by adjective, the subject must be followed by auxiliary be. It can be seen that there is no the verb be appearing after the subject in the above sentence, it may be the result of L1 transfer. When returning to the syntactical analysis of Bahasa Indonesia, the subjects of the sentence may be followed by adjective, adverb, and noun at once, there is no auxiliary be (Kamaludin, 2000). If there are many grammatical errors found in writing application letter, it is quite possible that the reader may not bring you to the next stage of the hiring process. Furthermore, to present the first impression of the reader not only well-organized sentences should you write but also you should perform well-arranged formal letter layouts with its right expressions as stated by Geffiner (1995) that the physical condition of a letter makes the first impression of the reader. It means you should also control the organization of letter appearance with its expressions written in each part of the letter before sending it in order that the reader will not read the covering letter with incorrectexpression in one of the parts of letter. The example of error in writing sender address of application letter can be seen below: Budi Alamsyah * Jln. Sederhana no 25 A Bandung This sender address cannot be accepted in English Business Letter as it appears the name of sender address above the street address, it should not be shown because his name has been typed after his handwritten signature. In 2012 Polban (Politeknik Negeri Bandung) through JPAC (Job Placement Assessment Centre) held a job fair. To join this recruitment process, the students, of

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course, are required to make the job application letters and submit them to the companies through JPAC Polban. This study is to observe whether the students have written covering letters using Standard English sentences and to investigate whether they have arranged their covering letters in well-organized formal letter layouts with the right expressions based on Geffner (1995), Ashley (1984), and Taylor (2004). The writer has read a number of works relating to errors, in particular grammatical errors in writing, the example is from Kamaludin (2000), his study is An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Compositions Written by the Second Year Students of Madrasah Alyah Negeri Nagara Bali. This research indicates that grammatical errors in writing English compositions made by these students are caused by the differences of the structures of L1 and L2 influence. The next study is from Rudi Hartono (2001) and his study is entitled Grammatical and Mechanical Errors in writing. In his research he concludes that grammatical errors in students writing are more dominant than the mechanical errors. Based on this, the writer would like to discuss grammatical errors in writing covering letters not composition as the writer has read. However, the study of arrangement of parts of letter is rarely discussed. Hence, in this study the writer will not only focus on grammatical errors found in the application letters but the writer will also consider errors in arranging parts of the application letter layouts with its expressions because layout of letter is one of the important things to express your professional in writing letter if you want to convey the proper image. My research question is what kind of errors made by the students relating to their application letters. Consequently, the writer chooses the title of this study is Error analysis on writing Application Letters found in JPAC of Politeknik Negeri Bandung. Error analysis is conducted to identify strategies which learners use in language learning, try to identify the causes of learner errors, and to obtain information on common difficulties in language learning, as an aid to teaching or the preparation of teaching materials (Richards, 1992: 127). One of the aims of error analysis is to help teachers give assessment more correctly what remedial work would be needed for the learners of English. The analysis of grammatical errors is limited on the area of grammatical errors based on the classification of linguistic category taxonomy proposed by Dulay, Burt and Krashen (1982) such as omission, addition, mis-formation and mis-ordering intending to provide evidence for inter and intra-lingual transfer in the acquisition of the English language. While the error analysis on writing parts of letter layouts is based on United Kingdom business letter concept. For this purpose, the writer has collected 55 data serving as representative samples in random from JPAC of Polban. Most of them are from the third year students coming from the non-English Department of Politeknik Negeri Bandung. In conducting this research, the writer uses descriptive qualitative method. The technique of data collecting is first collecting the letters about 55 letters in random and checking the mistakes, classifying based on the type of mistakes and putting the mistakes into percentage to find out the most frequent kinds of error made by the students. And this procedure of error analyses is based on Brown (1980: 167-169) consisting of identification of errors, description of errors comparing with the correct ones, classification of verb error categories and error types, tabulation and calculation of errors. II . THEORETICAL BACKGROUND A. Application Letter Application letter which is like an introduction letter or covering letter is one of the documents to be included when you apply for a job. Ashley (1984) says that the way we write a letter of application letter is as same as we write business one, such as making sure it says everything we want to say, using a simple but polite style of language, the writer should take care with abbreviations and figures, and paying special attention to Ragam Jurnal Pengembangan Humaniora Vol. 12 No. 3, Desember 2012

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titles, names and addresses. This letter usually consists of overview of yourself to the employer by presenting your personal information in a coherent format, not more than one page in length and of course it should be clear, concise, consistent, and error-free writing and easy to read in order not to make the golden career path away from you. No matter how carefully a letter is prepared, it is not good if it is sloppy formatting or badly organized, if its message is poorly expressed and unclear, and if the rules of etiquette are not followed (Geffner, 1995). The important thing to do is you should attract an employers attention and try to make reader grant you an interview. Besides, Curriculum Vitae attached should look as good as covering letter, it must look professional. Style of application As a formal letter, at least there are three format styles used in business letter, they are fully block, blocked, and semi blocked style. In fully blocked style all letter parts begin at the left margin, except for the printed letterhead; the body of the letter is not indented, and double spacing is used to separate the paragraphs. While blocked style, like fully blocked, all letter parts begin at the left margin, except the dateline, complimentary closing, company signature with the writers name are placed up to the right-hand margin. The next style is semi-blocked, the date, complimentary close and signature with the writers name are set to the right-hand margin, and the body is indented for each paragraph. Open punctuation is often used; this reduces typing time as there is no need for any unnecessary full stops and commas. Whichever layout, enclosure usually appears below the signature element and flushes with the left margin. It is important to know that whichever format you adopt, you have to be consistent, do not mix styles. It is stated by Taylor (2004) explaining that whichever layout you use for business documents, the most important rule is consistency, i.e. ensuring that all documents are displayed in the same format. A well-displayed, easy- to- read letter will attract attention at once and create a favorable first impression. Parts of Application Letter The following is an explanation of the parts of the application letter. (Geffner, 1995) - Sender address, at the minimum, contains the street address, the city, the state, and the code. The senders name does not appear at the top of the letter. - Date is typed a few lines below the sender. It should not be written in figures as they can be confusing; (i.e. 11.1.12 means 11th January 2012 in the UK but 1st November 2012 in the USA) it is better 11 January, 2012. - Inside Address typed begins with flush with the left margin. If you know the surname you are writing, the appropriate courtesy title (Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms) should be shown. It is written on the first line of the address. If you do not know the name you can write The Personnel Manager or HRD Department or Carroll & Associates, Inc. - Salutation is a kind of greeting to open letter. There are several types of salutations, as shown below. a. Dear Sir opens a letter written to a man whose name you do not know. b. Dear Sirs is used to address a company. c. Dear Sir or Madam is used to address a person of whom you know neither the name nor the sex. d. Dear Madam is used to address a woman, whether single or married, whose name you do not know. e. Dear (name) is used when you know the name of the person you are writing to, for example: Dear Mr Smith, not Dear Mr J Smith or Dear Mr John Smith. - The body consists of three or four paragraphs; the important thing is you must be consistent in writing the body. a. The first paragraph/opening must attract favorable attention.

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The second paragraph consists of personal data, educational background, experience and qualification, c. The third paragraph/closing, you close your application letter with a specific request for action and give the reader a good reason for inviting you for an interview. - Complementary Close placed below the last line of a letters body has two most common complimentary closes, they are Yours faithfully and Yours sincerely. If the letter opens with Dear Sir or Dear Madam, then close it with Yours faithfully while it opens with Dear Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Smith then close it with Yours sincerely. - Signature is very important, because a letter is not really complete until it has been signed in the authors own handwriting. Your name which is not followed by the courtesy title is written after your handwritten signature. However, it is also possible to include the title in the typewritten signature, usually in brackets. - Enclosure is followed by a list of the enclosed items is written bellow the signature element with the left margin. B. Errors and Mistakes In the process of learning a foreign/second language, errors made by the learners are usually found in their sentences; it could be caused by the interference from the mother tongue or the first language. Richards (1971) believes that development errors derived from faulty comprehension of distinction, in the target language. In attempting to get native-speaker like rules, students often make errors as reflection of their inter-lingual as stated by Brown (1991) saying that errors made by first language transfer are called inter-lingual errors, on the contrary errors which are as results of their incomplete comprehension of target language rules are called intra lingual errors. Furthermore Richards, (1992:127) states that error is a deviation from the target language rule which reflects inter-language competence of a learner, or which results from incomplete knowledge of a learner. In writing, not only do the learners make errors but also they present some mistakes. Richards (1992:127) says Mistakes made by a learner when writing or speaking and which is caused by lack of attention, fatigue, carelessness, or some other aspect of performance. It can be concluded that mistake which is not a result of deficiency in competence is regarded as slips of the tongue. However, error and mistake are due to incomplete acquisition of the language. Error relating to the cause Richards (1971) asserts that errors made by learners are caused by inter-lingual transfer and intra-lingual transfer. Inter-lingual Transfer In the process of learning a foreign language/second language, learners make errors that are caused by the interference from the mother tongue or the first language. Richards (1992) says Inter-lingual error is an error which results from language transfer, that is, which is caused by the learners native language. Positive interference occurs when there are similarities between L1and TL, while negative interference refers to the differences between L1 and TL. Intra-lingual Transfer In intra-lingual transfer the main source of the interference is the TL, which includes overgeneralization, incomplete application of rules, false concepts hypothesized, and ignorance of rule restriction. (Richards, 1971 cited in Binti Choiriyah, 2007). They are explained briefly below.

b.

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a.

b.

c.

d.

Overgeneralization. Overgeneralization generally involves the creation of one deviant structure in place of two regular structure, for examples, he can sings, we are hope, it is occurs. Mis-formation of prepositions is one characteristic of generalization. The learner assumes that see at follows the pattern look at. Incomplete application of rules. An example of incomplete application of rules can be seen in the question forms. For example, the use of question may also be unrelated to the skills meant to establish: Teachers question Students responses Ask your friend why he goes Why he goes? False concepts hypothesized. False concepts hypothesized are something due to poor gradation of teaching items. It may be caused by faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language. The form was for example, may be interpreted as the marker of the past tense, as in this sentence This morning this problem was happened. In addition, am may be interpreted as a marker of the present tense then the sentence is I am study. Ignorance of rule restriction. Closely related to the generalization of deviant structures is failure to observe the restriction of existing structures, that is, the application of rules to context where they do not apply. They man who I saw him violates the limitation on subjects in structure with who. This is again a type of generalization of transfer, since the learners is making use of previously acquired in a new situation. Some learners take it for granted that rule is rule without realizing there are restrictions to rules, example: the plural leaf is written leafs.

Error types Surface Strategy Taxonomy is the category which highlights the ways surface structures are altered. It concerns with identifying cognitive processes that underlie the learners reconstruction of the new language (Binti Choiriyah, 2007). According to Dulay et al (1982) there are four types of errors which belong to Surface Strategy Taxonomy, they are as follows: 1. Omission. This is a kind of error characterized by the absence of an item appearing in a well-formed utterance. For example: Please, give money. This sentence is characterized by the omitting of an item object. The sentence should be reconstructed as follows: Please! Give me money. 2. Addition. This type of error is characterized by the presence of an item which is not necessary to appear in a well-formed utterance. Addition errors usually occur in the later stages of L2 acquisition, when the learner has already acquired some target language rules .For example: Widha doesnt plays softball. 3. Mis-formation. This type of error is characterized by the use of the wrong form of a morpheme. While in omission errors the item is not supplied at all, in mis-formation errors the learner supplies something, although it is incorrect. For example: Thats hes car. In his research, Kamaludin (2000: 31) says the mis-formation errors are pointed out by mis forming of morphemes in the use of the use of articles, verbs, modal auxiliaries, nouns, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunction. And he gives the example as follows: Mis-formation errors in the use of verbs, In Supermarket, Sita buys shoes and a note book.* (bought), while in the use of prepositions: He lives in Sudirman Street no. 5 Bandung.* (at) 4. Mis-ordering. This type of error is characterized by the incorrect placement of a morpheme or a group of morphemes in an utterance. For example: I dont know where do you live.

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III. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Grammatical errors Grammatical errors occur when the patterns of arrangement of words in sentences are not appropriate with the patterns and roles that have been in language being used. The grammatical errors made by the students could be caused by Language First (L1) transfer and the lack of understanding of the target language rules as stated by Brown (2000:208) the principal barrier to the second language system is the interference of the first language system with the second language system. The 55 students who have made application letters have been chosen randomly as the subject of this study. There are many kinds of grammatical errors found in their work. The written data have been analyzed by classifying into categories of omission, addition, mis-formation, and mis-ordering. The total of 158 grammatical errors has been found. The writer just takes five highest numbers of total errors, they are prepositions, verb, plural, article, and tense. Table 1: The number and percentages of errors Type of errors Prepositions Verb Article Plural Tense Total Classification of errors Preposition The number of errors in preposition is 51 which comprise 32.28% of the total errors. They are particularly difficult for non-native speakers to master which forces the learners to commit them. These errors are probably caused by faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language, and such errors result in intra-lingual transfer. But, however, they errors possible appear because of inter-lingual L1 transfer. So, when the subject knows nothing about the rule, he might guess what should be there. The following table shows the kind of preposition errors and there is no the number of mis-ordering of prepositions. Table 2: Errors of prepositions Type of errors Omission of prepositions Addition of prepositions Mis-formation of prepositions Mis-ordering Total 1. Number of errors 6 16 29 51 a. The number of errors 51 49 27 17 14 158 The percentages of errors 32.28% 31.01% 17.09% 10.76% 8.86% 100%

2.

Some examples of this category as follows: I am interested for applying for this position.* The preposition for is used wrongly in the first sentence. The English adjective interested is followed by the preposition in. The mis-formation of preposition is probably caused by L1 transfer. (In Bahasa Indonesia: Saya tertarik untuk melamar posisi ini.) I am going to join with your company.*

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3.

The English verb join in the above sentence neednt the proposition. It is predicted that the addition of preposition with after the verb join is due to the inter-lingual error as the result of L1 transfer. (In Bahasa Indonesia: Saya akan bergabung dengan perusahaan anda.) I am writing to apply a Technician position. Please find enclosed my brief * The English verb apply in above sentence needs the proposition for relating to job. This omission of preposition is due to L1 interference and it is a kind of an interlingual error. It is predicted that the learners are careless in using preposition because in Bahasa Indonesia there is no specific preposition after verb. (In Bahasa Indonesia: Saya menulis untuk melamar posisi Teknisi).

Verbs The number of errors in verbs is 49 which comprise 31.01% of the total errors. These errors are divided into 4 sub-categories as explained in table 3 below and it can be seen that mis-ordering of verb is not found. Table 3: Errors of Verbs Type of errors Omission of the verb be Addition of the verb be Mis-formation of the verbs Mis-ordering Total a. The number of errors 27 15 7 49

b.

b.

c.

The examples of the error sentences: I confident that I will be able to contribute effectively to your company.* According to English structure, if a sentence whose subject is immediately followed by an adjective, the subject must be followed by auxiliary be. In Bahasa Indonesia, the subject of the sentence may be followed by noun, adjective, adverb at once. It can be predicted that this omission error is influenced by negative transfer of Indonesian into English. I am have a basic metrological training at LIPI.* Addition of verb- be am before the verb have in the sentence is the result of intralingual transfer. This error is caused by faulty comprehension of distinctions in the target language. To be am may be interpreted as a marker of the present tense and this leads into this construction: I am also have.* My background seem to match your job requirements. * In this sentence the verb seem cannot be accepted in English grammar rule as the subject is singular, consequently the verb seem should be added by inflectional suffixs to be seems. This mis-formation is predicted by L1 influence called interlingual transfer. It occurs because in Bahasa Indonesia there is no difference in using verb relating to Subject.

c.

Article From 27 errors of articles which comprise 17,09%, the highest number of errors in this part is omission, it is 23 errors. The table below presents the errors of articles which are classified into 4 categories and the last category is not found in using the articles.

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Table 4: Errors of articles Type of errors Omission of articles Addition of articles Mis-formation of articles Mis-ordering Total a. Number of errors 23 1 3 27

b.

c.

The example of error use in the articles: I am well-organized and self-motivated person.* In Standard English, we use a/an with a singular noun when we describe someone to say what type of thing someone is. In the sentence above the student describes what type of man he himself is, so the article a should appear before his own character, well-organized and self-motivated. The omission of the article is the result of intralingual transfer. The students have not yet mastered where and when to use the articles of target language. Bahasa Indonesia neednt the article relating to a singular noun, therefore it has made the students not carefully write sentences whose nouns should use articles or not. I am a last semester student of Diploma III Energy Conversion Engineering.* Based on Standard English sentence, article the appears before a superlative adjective. In this sentence, article a has been put before the superlative last, it is incorrectly arranged in English sentence rule, it should be the. The mis-formation of article may be caused by the lack of understanding of article use concept of target language. It is called intra-lingual error. .., so I can give information about myself in a more detailed and complete.* We have known that a/an is used before singular countable noun but not before adjective. Addition of article a after adjective in this sentence is the result of an intralingual transfer. It occurs because the student falsely has comprehended the rules of article use of target language, so they do not know that no article before adjective.

Plural The number of errors in plurals is 16 which comprises 10,76% of the total errors. It is divided into 4 sub-categories stated in the table below, but no mis-formation and misordering shown. Table: 5: Errors of plurals Type of errors Omission of plurals Addition of plurals Mis-formation Mis-ordering Total a. Number of errors 14 3 17

d.

The examples of errors of plural: I have some experience in practical work.* This sentence is far from English sentence rule because the determiner some and many are followed by plural countable nouns. The omission of inflectional suffix s in the noun countable experience is the result of intra-lingual transfer. The student has probably had incomplete learning of the target language therefore this student has attempted to build up the target language from his limited experience with it. If we

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b.

want to point out the plural of countable noun in Bahasa Indonesia we neednt to add inflectional suffix- s in this word. I am a twenty one years old male and I got ..* Addition of inflectional suffix-s in the word year cannot be accepted as a good Standard English sentence. The word years in the first sentence is categorized as adjective, so it is impossible to add inflectional suffix-s in adjective year. It is the result of intra-lingual transfer, because the student has not mastered the adequate competence of target language.

e.

Tenses The number of errors in tenses is 14 which comprises 8.86%. These errors are divided into 4 sub-categories; they can be seen in the table 6 and it shows that there is no the number of errors in addition and mis-ordering. Table 6: Errors of Tenses Type of errors Omission of ing Addition Mis-formation Mis-ordering Total Number of Errors 1 13 14

a.

b.

c.

Examples of the errors: I have graduated from Electrical Engineering of Polban in May 2012.* The sentence is not accepted by correct English grammar sentence considering that Present Perfect Tense neednt adverb of time. On the contrary Simple Past Tense is possible to use adverb of time. The student has made this error due to L1 transfer called inter-lingual error. We can see that the first sentence pattern is typical Bahasa Indonesia. (Bahasa Indonesia: Saya sudah lulus dari ..) Now, I am still work as V-Team MBOS at Asian Pulp & Paper..* Verb phrase am still work in this sentence is irrelevant verb in Simple Present Continuous Tense, the rule is to be and followed by verb-ing. Omission ing such an intra-lingual error, happens since the student might not apply all the rules he has learned which is due to incomplete learning. At last job I never have problem with my assignment .* The adverb of time at last shows that the tense is Simple Past Tense meaning the verb have should be substituted by had. The student has probably been careless in using the right tense; consequently the student has failed in applying grammar rule of the English appearing intra-lingual error. It is predicted because Bahasa Indonesia can use the same verb in different time.

B. The errors of application letter layouts This part of course is also very important to be discussed. Making such errors in layout can turn a reader away from your letter as the reader might question the legitimacy of your ability to deal with work offered. There are many kinds of errors in writing the parts of letter layouts found made by the 55 students, the total of 208 errors of letter layouts has been found. They have been classified into 6 categories. Most of errors have been found in writing the expressions in parts of application letters. The table 7 shows us the type, number, and percentage of errors.

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Table 7: Errors of letter layouts Type of errors Sender Addresses Enclosures Complimentary Closes Salutations Date Style Total Explanation of the errors a. Sender Address The highest number of errors is sender address. The total of 50 errors of this part has been found. Below is the example of error in writing sender address: Firdaus Alamsyah * Jl. PLN Dalam Gg. Nurjanah No. 54 Bandung, 40172 Sender address appears when the letter is sent by an individual. It is better there is no sender name above address because it has been written after giving signature in complimentary close. Enclosure Typing Enc at the foot of the letter is the most common form of indicating enclosures. The example of the error, as follows: Thank you for your consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely yours, Firdaus Alamsyah Because an application letter is usually accompanied by a resume, the word enclosure (enc) should appear below the signature element and flush with the left margin. c. Complimentary Close There are two kinds of the errors found in writing complimentary close. The examples of these errors can be seen below: a. Dear Sir/Madam I have read from job vacancy at JPAC Polban that your company is looking for ... Sincerely yours * If the salutation opens with Dear Sir/Madam, then it closes with Yours faithfully b. Hopefully, you could consider my application and I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. b. The number of errors 50 49 44 37 19 9 208 The percentages of errors 24.04% 23.56% 21.15% 17.79% 9.13% 4.33% 100%

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Your faithfully,* Silviani Eryanti The word your in above expression cannot be accepted in complimentary close concept. The word yours is instead of your. c. a. Salutation There are two kinds of errors in this part, they are: Manager of Human Resources Development BRI II Building 12th Floor Jl. Jendral Sudirman Kav. 44-46 Jakarta 10210 I am writing to apply for the Technician position which When writing a covering letter there should appear salutation between inside address and body of letter. This salutation is used to say to welcome or say hello to somebody addressed to the person you are writing to, example Dear Sir. Make sure you use the recipients correct title in the salutation. b. HRD Department PT. Halliburton Indonesia Jalan Cilandak KKO Jakarta Dear Sir, Dear Sirs should be written in salutation above, it is impossible if it is written Dear Sir because if your letter is addressed generally to an organization and not to a specific person, the more formal salutation Dear Sirs /Madams should be used. Date *Palembang, February 10, 2010 In writing date in covering letter, the city the sender comes from is not necessary to put because it has appeared in sender address or in Letter Head. Style When writing a covering letter, some students have not been consistent in their letter layouts. For example of the error of style: One of the students has used a full-blocked style for his covering letter, but when writing a body of letter, beginning of each paragraph has been appeared in indented. The writing of this indented paragraph is far from UK business letter concept, the rule of fullblocked style is all letter parts should begin at the left margin as explained above. It seems the errors above made by the students have been caused by their carelessness. The learners have not applied the rules how to do wellorganized layouts correctly. In other words, the students have not completely mastered rules of letter layout with its expressions, and therefore they have not implemented them in accordance with the right rules based on the theories. When they know nothing about the rule, they may guess what it should be there. e. d.

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IV. CONCLUSION Having analyzed those fifty five data based on the theory of Error Analysis and the theory of writing letters, the writer comes to the conclusion. Firstly, the subjects has produced 158 grammatical errors while in writing letter layouts, the subjects has made 208 errors. Based on surface strategy taxonomy analysis, the writer finds the highest number of errors is errors in omission (71), followed by misformation (52), then addition (35), and the least is mis-ordering, there is no mis-ordering made by the students. It shows that most of them have already mastered the rules how to place the words in the right positions to build well-formed sentences. While according to syntax, errors are found in the use of prepositions (51) comprising 32.28%) verbs (49 comprising 31.01), articles (27 comprising 17.09%), plurals (17 comprising 10.76%)), and tenses (14 comprising 8.86%). It is revealed that a large portion of errors results from intra-lingual transfer due to incomplete knowledge of target language. The students seem to have difficulty in mastering the rules of English. Additionally, some errors are caused by interference from Bahasa Indonesia, the students transfer grammar rules of Bahasa Indonesia into those of English resulting in overgeneralization. It is regarded as interlingual errors. It is evident that in process of acquiring another language, inter and intralingual transfer are inevitable. Second, with regard in letter layouts, errors are plentiful in writing sender address (50 comprising 24.04%), enclosures (49 comprising 23.56%). complimentary closes (44 comprising 21.15%), salutations (37 comprising 17.79%), date (19 comprising 9.13%), and style (9 comprising 4.33%). The errors found in writing letter layouts are probably caused by the lack of mastery of the concept of English business letter. Finally, the writer sincerely hopes that this study would be beneficial for English teachers and the learners. For English teachers especially Business English teachers, they could use the result of this study as an input to prepare teaching materials. There are two things should be done by them. Firstly, the teachers should put an emphasis on teaching business letter especially the rules how to organize a good business letter by giving more practicing and homework and check them together with the students. Secondly, relating to writing competence to support writing letter, the teachers should also pay more attention to writing to help learners to develop skills in using Standard English sentences. The error patterns made by the students could help the teachers in focusing the materials. While for the students, they should not be careless anymore in their work. Reading more English books, newspapers, and magazines is one of the ways to overcome their problems besides doing some practicing themselves. REFERENCES Ashley, A. (1984). Commercial Correspondence. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Brown, H.D. (1980). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Brown, H.D. (1991). Breaking the Language Barrier. Yarmouth: Inter-cultural Press, Inc. Brown, C. (2000). The Interrelation between Speech Perception and Phonological Acquisition From Infant to Adult. London: Blackwell Publishers Limited. Choiriyah, Binti. (2007). Thesis: Syntactic Errors in Thesis Proposals on Syntax Written by the Students of English Letters and Language Department of the State Islamic University Malang. (on line), http: www.lib.uin-malang ac.id/thesis/full chapter/ 0020022-binti-choiriyah.pdf. (10 March, 2013) Dulay et.al. (1982). Language Two. New York: Oxford University Press.

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Geffner, B.A.(1995). How To Write Better Business Letters.USA: Barrons Educational Series, Inc. Hartono, Rudi. (2001). Grammatical and Mechanical Errors in Writing. Bandung: Faculty of Graduate Program,UPI. Kamaludin .(2000) Thesis: An Analysis of Grammatical Errors in Compositions Written by The Second Year Students of Madrasah Aliyah Negeri Nagara Bali. Bandung: Faculty of Graduate Program, UPI. Richards, J.C. (1971). A Non-Contrastive Approach to error Analysis, English Language Teaching, Vol.25, 3 April 1971. London: Oxford University Press. Richards et.al. (1992). Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics. New Edition. UK: Longman Group Taylor, Shirley.(2004). Model Business Letters, E-mails & Other Business Documents. Great Britain: Pearson Education Limited.

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